Tempus Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 Let's have some fun! There are 16 metals in Allomancy, and 16 shards. Atium replaced the temporals metals with itself (a temporal metal of greater effect), because Preservation felt it should do so. Ruin was notable for not being able to see into the future well at all, but Atium let people see the near future very clearly. Using these facts, let's extrapolate! Assumptions: Each Shard's metal would replace one existing metal The shardmetal's effect would be superior but of the same basic type to the one it replaced The effect of the shardmetal should be some weakness of the shard, not their strength Atium replaced Electrum in effect, but took the place of Bendalloy (External, Pushing) which is opposite in that quadrant. Hemalurgy is more of an external pushing magic than an internal pulling one, so that corresponds So, in that case.... Tanavium Would replace the Internal, Pulling, Physical metal; Tin Tanavium grants the user a sense of absolute presence sense within an area, and the expanded mental capacity to comprehend and sort it. When burning Tanavium, the user would have complete positional and sensory knowledge of all objects, people and animals within a concentric spherical zone, with the knowledge becoming less precise the further away from the Allomancer they are. Honor is great at making bonds (mental), good at fixing people (enhancement), and decent at seeing the future (temporal). So his weakness is physical. He tends to do things internally (Nahel Bonds) and he pulls (inhales and attracts) rather than pushes Aonium Would replace the External, Pushing, Mental metal; Brass Aonium allows the Allomancer to dampen all mental affiliations to other things and people, effectively forcing a person to be unable to think about those things. An Aonium user could create an extremely focused (devoted ) person by dampening all thoughts except on the subject desired. Or they could dampen a specific subject, such as yourself, making you effectively invisible to that person as it would become impossible for them to think about you. Aona is great at making regional magics (physical), good at making enhanced Elantrian people (enhancement), and unknown at seeing the future (temporal). But the Aons and other programming languages are the ones that require the most specific cognitive input from the user, so that is Aona's weakness. Aona works mostly externally (glowing things and extra mediums like soulstamps and permanent aon writings) and pushes (affects other things more than the user) Skaium Would replace the Internal, Pushing, Mental metal; Bronze Skaium allows the Allomancer to not only sense any nearby usages of investiture, but flare or dampen them as well as sense and distinguish them. Flaring would act similar to nicrosil, while dampening would act similar to chromium, but more controllable. While you could not control the type or effects of the investiture, this would allow you to prevent being attacked by other allomantic abilities from a distance, or to enhance them, though with a finer grained detail. The abilities would be thwarted by a coppercloud. The allomantic strength of the user would determine how far you could seek, and how much you could dampen/flare their abilities (which would also be function of distance as well). Skai is great at making regional magics (physical), good at making enhanced Bone monks (enhancement), and unknown at seeing the future (temporal). But the Bloodsealing and Dahkorness both create/require things of lower than average intelligence (skeletals, fanatics =P), so mental is again the weakness. Skai works mostly internally (using blood, making zombies and adding bone growths) and pushes (magics affects other things more than the user) Endowmenteel Would replace the Internal, Pushing, Physical metal; Pewter Endowmenteel when burnt grants the user enhanced strength, speed, durability, health, and the enhanced mental capacity to control it in the form of skill. While active, the user has enhanced physical attributes of all types, heals quickly, and has an instinctive knowledge of his physical capabilities, similar to Kaladin when he holds Stormlight. The stronger the strength of the allomancer, the greater these capabilities. Endowment is great at giving powers (enhancement), good at seeing the future (temporal), and okay at increasing mental capacity (mental). Awakening and breath both give relatively few physical advantages, so physical is the weakness. Endowment works mostly internally (Breath) and pushes (breath effects the outside world, and awakening imputes itself onto objects) Cultivatium Would replace the External, Pulling, Physical metal; Iron Cultivatium not only allows the user to pull any metal towards them, as if attracted by a magnet to their center of gravity, but any object. It obeys the same general rules as Iron, except metal is not required. The strength of the pull is related by how close to metal the substance is - metal pulls VERY easily, and much more strongly than Iron. Stone and other non-organics pull well, dead organics pull poorly, and live organics very poorly. Cultivation is great at seeing the future (temporal), good at granting boons probably (enhancement), and the boons have strange mental effects often (mental). This leaves physical as her weakness We don't know how endowment works, but all the internal metals are taken, so it will have to be External, and cultivating seems more pulling, so we're gonna go with that. Bavadinium Would replace the External, Pushing, Enhancement metal; Nicrosil Bavadinium when burnt by an allomancer would have the unexpected effect of surging the spirit web of another person the Allomancer is in contact with. This ability would increase the allomantic abilities of the subject permanently - snapping any unsnapped allomancers, pushing practiced allomancers into savancy. In addition, any existing allomantic metals would surge compounded with the energy burnt from the Bavadinium user, causing a multiplicative nicrosil effect to take place. Strong Bavadinium allomancers would be able to cause single mistings to rarely gain a second misting power along with the above effects (usually one adjacent in the allomantic table) at a very low power. This is often dependent on the individual sDNA of the target. Flaring Bavadinium could occasionally force the awakening of an unbalanced Mistborn, with partial savancy as well as a broken spirit web with damage similar to hemalurgic effects. Bavadin's weak area might be Enhancement. I'm gonna say... External and Pushing Raysium Would replace the Internal, Pulling, Enhancement metal; Aluminium It's fitting that Odium should get the cosmere-strange Aluminium as his metal, though I did not have that in mind when I analyzed his abilities. Raysium, when burned, destroys an Allomancer's investiture, scattering and damaging it beyond repair, turning the Allomancer into an ordinary person, even possibly a slightly spiritually damaged person depending on their allomantic strength. Flaring Raysium would take the person to a similar level of spiritual damage as being hemalurgically spiked, without the accompanying physical trauma. Odium is great at seeing the future (temporal), good at making evil monsters (physical), and plays a lot of mind games (mental). Enhancement is what remains, right? We don't know how Odium works, but judging by all the monster unmade he makes and their abilities, such as death rattles, thrill, corrupted spren, parshendi void forms, etc... I'm gonna say his abilites are Internal and Pulling. 3
Moogle Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 Let's have some fun! There are 16 metals in Allomancy, and 16 shards. Atium replaced the temporals metals with itself (a temporal metal of greater effect), because Preservation felt it should do so. Ruin was notable for not being able to see into the future well at all, but Atium let people see the near future very clearly. Using these facts, let's extrapolate! Assumptions: Each Shard's metal would replace one existing metal Minor quibbles: I see no reason why any Shard's metal would have to replace anything. Atium still works despite malatium and atium not being on the Table anymore. Lerasium works as well. A Shard's metal would only have to replace things if you wanted there to be Mistings, I think. Preservation specifically crafted Atium Mistings. Also, the power of a godmetal has very little to do with the Shard's intent. Kaimipono (16 October 2008)Allomancy is fueled by Preservation's body? How exactly does that work? And how does that interact with Atium—it's fueled by both gods' bodies? Brandon Sanderson (17 October 2008)The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms. Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.) Ruin was terrible at seeing the future, so atium granting future sight is a pretty strong argument against the idea. Lerasium altering your spiritweb is also not terribly Preservation-y, but you could make an argument for it since it gives you a connection to Preservation. It doesn't have to make you an Allomancer, though. As to your powers: they're interesting, and neat, but they're all variations on already existing metallic powers. Lerasium and atium provided new powers entirely - compare atium/malatium with bendalloy and cadmium, and it seems like the powers should take an entirely different approach to the category. I think your powers need some tweaking to manage that. A metallic replacement for tin (Internal Pulling Physical) could be something like giving you heat vision, brass (External Pushing Mental) could knock someone unconscious (weaker versions just making them idiots by creating a blockage between the Physical and Cognitive akin to mistwraiths), that sort of thing. I wouldn't have the slightest idea on how to assign a Shard to each of these. What complicates things is that god-metals create an entirely new set of alloys. That makes this even harder, because now each god metal has to have a theme (temporal effects for atium, spirit-web effects for lerasium). My examples could be stretched (my tin-analogue could have thermal-related effects, like Steel+god-tin lets you create gouts of fire, Iron+god-tin lets you create areas of cold), but it makes things very hard. Your examples could be stretched as well, but it seems hard. In summary: I suspect Brandon will never have any Shards coming to Scadrial creating their own metals to save himself from the horror of figuring out more powers. 1
Ketek Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 Ruin was terrible at seeing the future, so atium granting future sight is a pretty strong argument against the idea. Not in the short-term; Ruin was superb at that, and atium is a combat metal. You know what's going to come in the next few moments. As for why it can see in the long term when you burn duralumin, I presume that's due to Preservation.
Tempus Posted April 29, 2014 Author Posted April 29, 2014 Minor quibbles: I see no reason why any Shard's metal would have to replace anything. Atium still works despite malatium and atium not being on the Table anymore. Lerasium works as well. A Shard's metal would only have to replace things if you wanted there to be Mistings, I think. Preservation specifically crafted Atium Mistings. Also, the power of a godmetal has very little to do with the Shard's intent. As to your powers: they're interesting, and neat, but they're all variations on already existing metallic powers. Lerasium and atium provided new powers entirely - compare atium/malatium with bendalloy and cadmium, and it seems like the powers should take an entirely different approach to the category. I think your powers need some tweaking to manage that. A metallic replacement for tin (Internal Pulling Physical) could be something like giving you heat vision, brass (External Pushing Mental) could knock someone unconscious (weaker versions just making them idiots by creating a blockage between the Physical and Cognitive akin to mistwraiths), that sort of thing. I wouldn't have the slightest idea on how to assign a Shard to each of these. What complicates things is that god-metals create an entirely new set of alloys. That makes this even harder, because now each god metal has to have a theme (temporal effects for atium, spirit-web effects for lerasium). My examples could be stretched (my tin-analogue could have thermal-related effects, like Steel+god-tin lets you create gouts of fire, Iron+god-tin lets you create areas of cold), but it makes things very hard. Your examples could be stretched as well, but it seems hard. In summary: I suspect Brandon will never have any Shards coming to Scadrial creating their own metals to save himself from the horror of figuring out more powers. Those are all good points. As for the first, Preservation replaced two existing temporal metals with atium and malatium, according to WoB. And I know Intent doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the powers. But I needed some basis to work from, you see. So I'm assuming that if more god metals were to arrive, Preservation would also replace or base them off existing metals (if he were still around). As for powers based off originals, Atium is just like Electrum, except super-charged. For Preservation, I would in his case put Lerasium as Duralumin based - you'll see that Bavadinium's Nicrosil replacement has similar effects in many ways (except more damaging). That similarity to existing metals was my basis for riffing the new powers off old ones. That said, your abilities are also pretty cool. As for alloys, I'd say... Tanavium would make sensory and physical information alloys. Cosmere-wise, I based it a bit off lifesense. Aonium would make thought based alloys. Cosmere-wise, it was based part off mind control, and part off memory manipulation. Copper would be memory based, in a nice coincidence. Skaium would make investiture control based alloys. Cosmere-wise, not much drawn from off-Scadrial. Endowmenteel would make alloys that increased basic attributes. It's inspiration was part Mythwalker, but mostly Stormlight based. Both similar to Nalthian investiture. Cultivatium would make alloys that attract things together. It was Iron and pressure surge and gravity surge kind of meshed together. Bavadinium would make alloys that alter the spirit web of others. I think of it like a cross between Lerasium, savancy, and a permanent powerful Forgery. Raysium would make alloys that destroy your spirit web more carefully. Imagine taking some alloys of iron and removing iron pushing from a Mistborn. These powers were based largely off a combination of hemalurgy and the unique cosmere-wide properties of aluminium.
skaa he/him Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Very interesting, Tempus! This reminds me of my own theory about atium and lerasium. Last year I theorized that a piece of atium is physically indistinguishable from electrum, but has an inverted Allomantic effect due to the imbalance in its spiritual identity caused by being "completely of Ruin" (as Sazed said). So the internal temporal pushing effect of electrum becomes an external temporal pushing one. Similarly, I theorized that lerasium is just nicrosil that is completely of Preservation, and so has an external enhancement pushing effect (the opposite of nicrosil's effect). If we apply my interpretation to your theoretical god metals, tanavium would, in a sense, be Honor's Iron. Aonium would be Devotion's Bronze, skaium Skaa's Brass...I mean, Dominion's Brass, endowmenteel Endownment's Steel, cultivatium Cultivation's Tin, bavadinium Bavadin's Duralumin, and raysium Odium's Chromium. They all would be placed on the opposite side of the table from their base metal forms (Honor's Iron will be in Tin's position, etc.), just as you laid out in your post. (Irrelevant sidenote: I just realized how "Skai" is almost "Skaa". Weird how I never noticed that before...) Edited May 1, 2014 by skaa 4
Tempus Posted April 29, 2014 Author Posted April 29, 2014 That's a fair original theory Skaa - by that theory I would have the placement of metals correct, but the effects slightly off, I believe. Coming up with god metal abilities based off the metals and other known cosmere investitures is actually super fun.
Moogle Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Not in the short-term; Ruin was superb at that, and atium is a combat metal. You know what's going to come in the next few moments. As for why it can see in the long term when you burn duralumin, I presume that's due to Preservation. Ruin didn't see what Vin was going to do until she did it, so it doesn't seem like a very useful ability if Ruin could see slightly into the future. There's also this WoB, which says the powers from god-metals are not of either Shard.: Andrew the Great (19 October 2008)Why can Vin fuel Elend's atium-burning, even though Atium is Ruin's Body and Vin is using Preservation? Or did I misread that and he was just burning atium and had run out of everything else? Brandon Sanderson (20 October 2008) Yes, as has been pointed out: A powerful peace swelled in Elend. His Allomancy flared bright, though he knew the metals inside of him should have burned away. Only atium remained, and the strange power did not—could not—give him this metal. But it didn’t matter. For a moment, he was embraced by something greater. He looked up, toward the sun. (From the text.) As a note here, the powers granted by all of the metals—even the two divine ones—are not themselves of either Shard. They are simply tools. And so, it's possible that one COULD have found a way to reproduce an ability like atium's while using Preservation's power, but it wouldn't be as natural or as easy as using Preservation to fuel Allomancy. The means of getting powers—Ruin stealing, Preservation gifting—are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves. As for powers based off originals, Atium is just like Electrum, except super-charged. For Preservation, I would in his case put Lerasium as Duralumin based - you'll see that Bavadinium's Nicrosil replacement has similar effects in many ways (except more damaging). That similarity to existing metals was my basis for riffing the new powers off old ones. That said, your abilities are also pretty cool. You have a good point on atium, but I disagree on lerasium. I don't think it's close to duralumin except insofar as that if I had to have "lerasium Mistings" I'd definitely put lerasium down as the internal pulling enhancement metal. Lerasium rewrites your spirit-web, which by default apparently creates a bond directly to Preservation. Duralumin (if we're close with our speculation in other threads) just seems to widen any existing fissures in your spirit-web to allow more Investiture to flow through, sort of temporarily making you a savant. Or, perhaps, it makes you more of a 'vacuum' for Investiture - which would mean you could more easily retain Stormlight without leaking it, or breathe it in from longer distances away. The mechanics seem wildly different in any case, so some god metals should similarly differ wildly (at least in some cases). Edited April 29, 2014 by Moogle 2
Recommended Posts